Cover up machinery after sanitation
Hi,
Can cleaning staff cover machinery/equipment up after sanitation? If yes, what can be used to cover?
Clean food contact approved garbage bags may work (depending on size)
or Combo liners https://www.bunzlpd....mbo-poly-liners you can have a dispenser mounted on the wall, they come on a roll with perforations between liners
What is the objective of the cover? or what do you want to get from covering the machines after cleaning?
As a principle, food equipment and machinery should air dry after being washed. If the objective is to protect from damage, maybe yes. But in general covers can increase food safety risk and extra work in terms of cleaning of equipment and then cleaning of the cover itself.
Lastly, what is the size or surface area to be covered? If you have big operations, it will not be financially a feasible or practical decision.
I'd say more info is needed. What kind and size of equipment? Covered how long, just until the next day? Why does it need to be covered? Etc, etc...
Hi,
Can cleaning staff cover machinery/equipment up after sanitation? If yes, what can be used to cover?
Theoretically acceptable, sure. What material to cover with depends on what the equipment is, how big is it, how long it will be covered, what you plan to do with it afterward, etc.
The answer is not always yes. We had a piece of equipment ruined by a co-man. because of when it was covered.
We routinely covered equipment, or at least the feed hoppers into various systems, in my spice plant after sanitation once the equipment was dry. We would normally use the food grade poly drum liners we used for processing WIP materials (almost all of our WIP went into fiber drums with the poly bags inside). Eventually it led to an SQF auditor asking why we felt it was necessary, our reasoning being that we just wanted to protect the cleaned surfaces from any possible intrusions. But she used our practice of covering equipment to deep dive into our dust management systems (milling/blending spices is dusty), and more heavily scrutinized our EM program (specifically air monitoring). Her logic was if our dust control was truly sufficient, and our air monitoring was really as in control as our records showed, then covering the equipment was unnecessary so therefore we must not be as clean as we appear on paper.
We stuck to our procedure, that we felt a cheap poly bag over the entry point of our processing lines or equipment in general was just an extra safeguard against anything we couldn't foresee. Sometimes we would idle a milling line for a month at a time waiting for orders, and the idea of letting that hopper into a clean grinder or screw conveyer remain open to the atmosphere just seemed like a bad idea to us (and of course we had startup inspections specific to equipment that hasn't been run in awhile). So in my experience, yes, you can cover your equipment after cleaning, but just be prepared for someone to question why you feel it is necessary.
We want to cover to protect them from contamination. Staff would cover equipment (hoppers, short belts, vibratory feeder) after sanitation until the next day pre-op when the ATP swabs are done.
We thought about white sheets that would be washed every day.
I wouldn't cover if it's just for overnight there is no point
more importantly ATP should be done Post Clean but PRE Sanitizer so it should be done during sanitation activities so they can reclean if needed
We were getting high ATP results. We cover it for as few days, the results got lower, that's why we want to keep covering it.
We were getting high ATP results. We cover it for as few days, the results got lower, that's why we want to keep covering it.
That is an unacceptable solution
ATP is meant to measure the success or failure of your sanitation process--clearly in this case, sanitation is sub par
Invest the time and money your spending on covering into training and staff for your sanitation department
We were getting high ATP results. We cover it for as few days, the results got lower, that's why we want to keep covering it.
It is highly unlikely the covering had any kind of causal effect on reducing the ATP readings. Those ATP tests really ought to be performed right after the sanitation procedures have been completed while any trace residues are still relatively well hydrated.
If your production environment had a high enough level of aerosolized organic particulates to cause a significant rise in your ATP readings I would be much more worried about what was causing it than trying to temporarily cover machinery -- because those same particulates would be getting in your product and causing spoilage etc. when the machine wasn't covered.